1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improvement of a semiconductor device constituting a GaAs MESFET.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, Cr-doped semi-insulating GaAs or non-doped LEC (Liquid Encapsulated Czochralski) GaAs has been used as a base material of a GaAs Metal-Semiconductor Field-Effect-Transistor (to be referred to as a GaAs MESFET hereinafter). In order to form a GaAs MESFET from this base material, the following manufacturing steps are conventionally required.
When a non-doped LEC GaAs substrate is used as a base material, a proper pretreatment is performed for the substrate. Thereafter, an SiOx layer having a thickness of, e.g., 5,000 .ANG. is deposited on the substrate by chemical vapor deposition. Openings are formed on desired portions of the substrate through the SiOx layer using a photolithography technique. Si ions are implanted through the openings at an accelerated energy of 180 keV and a dose of 5.times.10.sup.13 ions/cm.sup.2, to form electrode layers corresponding to to the openings in the substrate. After the resist pattern including the SiOx layer is removed, a proper pretreatment is performed again on the surface of the substrate, and another SiOx layer is deposited by chemical vapor deposition. An opening is formed on the desired portion of the substrate through the SiOx layer by using a photolithography technique. Si ions are implanted through the opening at an accelerated energy of 100 keV and a dose of 3.times.10.sup.-12 ions/cm.sup.2, to form an active layer just under the opening in the substrate. Then, the resist pattern including the SiOx layer is removed. Thereafter, a capless annealing process is performed in an arsenic atmosphere at 850.degree. for 15 minutes and the implanted Si ions are electrically activated. Finally, gate, source, and drain electrodes are formed on the substrate by a lift-off method.
As described above, it is known that a GaAs base material used in a GaAs MESFET obtained by conventionally-known manufacturing steps normally contains boron and carbon atoms, and the activation ratio of the implanted Si ions during a capless annealing process after an active layer is formed depends upon the concentrations of boron and carbon ions. For this reason, it has been attempted to reduce the concentrations of residual impurities such as boron and carbon ions. However, it is known that when the total concentration of boron and carbon ions contained in the base material is about 2.times.10.sup.17 atoms/cm.sup.3 or less, the drain current-drain voltage (I.sub.D -V.sub.D) characteristic curve of the manufactured GaAs MESFET represents a nonlinear operation, as shown at a point A in FIG. 1, at a predetermined voltage value, e.g., 3 V or more and a drain current value of 100 .mu.AM or more. It is considered that these nonlinear characteristics are caused because the interface between the active layer formed by implantation of Si ions and the base material in contact with the active layer is not clear but is blurred, and a depth profile is formed loosely extending downward from the portion near the lower end of the active layer. More specifically, in a conventional GaAs MESFET, if the drain voltage, V.sub.D, is increased, a leakage current flowing through a portion other than the active layer and the electrode layer formed in the substrate, in particular, a current flowing through the above-mentioned blurred portion starts oscillating at or above a predetermined threshold value. It is considered that because this current serves as a gate, the above-mentioned nonlinear characteristics are generated. The nonlinear operation of the drain current adversely affects the noise characteristics of the GaAs MESFET. In addition, it is confirmed that the above problem is similarly posed on a GaAs MESFET manufactured by forming an epitaxial layer on a base material
As a means for solving the above problem, it has been already disclosed that high-concentration Cr ions serving as an impurity doped in a substrate can prevent the above-mentioned nonlinear operation, in "IEEE Transaction on Electron Devices., Vol. ED-34, No. 6, June 1987, pp. 1239-1244". However, in this disclosed technique, the problem of a large change in drain current, ID, over time is also pointed out.